Peacemaking and the league of Nations

Georges Clemenceau

He wanted revenge, and to punish the Germans for what they had done as his country receive most damage.

He wanted to make Germany pay for the damage done during the war.

He also wanted to weaken Germany, so France would never be invaded again and make buffer zone

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Woodrow Wilson

He was President of America.

He was a History professor. He wanted to make the world safe. He wanted to end war by making a fair peace.

In 1918, Wilson published ‘Fourteen Points’ saying what he wanted.

He said that he wanted disarmament, and a League of Nations (where countries could talk out their problems, without war).

He also promised self-determination for the peoples of Eastern Europe.

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Lloyd George

He was Prime Minister of Great Britain.

He said he would ‘make Germany pay’ – because he knew that was what the British people wanted to hear.

He wanted ‘justice’, but he did not want revenge. He said that the peace must not be harsh – that would just cause another war in a few years’ time. He tried to get a ‘halfway point’ – a compromise between Wilson and Clemenceau

He ALSO wanted to expand the British Empire, maintain British control of the seas, and increase Britain's trade

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Term of The Treaty of Versallies

Guilt - Germany had to accept complete responsility for the war

Arms - Germany's army was reduced to 100,000 men, 6 battles ships and no air forces or submarines. They weren't allowed to join with Austria and the rhineland was demilitrised

Reperations -Germany had to pay for the damage in the war, this totalled £6.6 billion/ 132 billion gold marks, this wouldn't have been paid of to 1984 if the terms hadn't changed.

Terratories - Germany lost lots of land, they weren't allowed oversea colonies, these were given to Britain and France. They lost the saar to france, the polish corridor to poland and Alsace lorraine to france

League of Nations banned Germany from joining until it proved it was a peaceful country.

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Other Country's Treaties

Austria: Treaty of Saint Germain – 30,000 men army, reparations agreed, empire dismantled and land given to Italy

Bulgaria: Treaty of Neuilly – 20,000 men army, 2.25 billion francs reparations, land given to Yugoslavia , Romania and Greece

Turkey: Treaty of Sèvres – 50,000 men army, Land given to Italy and Greece and Overseas colonies lost.

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The Treaty of Versallies

32 countries met in January 1919 to discuss what would happen to Germany after the war was over.

The big three were Georges Clemençeau of France, Woodrow Wilson of America and Lloyd George of Britain.

The big three all wanted different things

The Treaty was agreed in March 1919

Germany had no negations even though they published a rebuttal, this was ignored.

The treaty was signed on the 28th June 1919 in the hall of mirrors in the palace of Versailles, which is near Paris, by two Germans

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The League of Nations

Assembly – 42 countries were originally members. The USA, USSR and Germany were not. The assembly meant once a year.Council – The council meet 3 to 4 times a year. The permanent members were Britain, Japan, France and Italy along with 4 other countries which changed every 3 years. They discussed important issues.The Secretariat – Kept records of meetings and prepared reports for different organisations of the leagueCommissions – Set up to help with things such as refugees, slavery and health issues.The International Labour Organisation – its aim was to improve work conditions around the world, set standards and persuaded members to adopt themThe court of international justice – The court was based in Hague, Netherlands. It was made up of judges to deal with different disputes between countries and other legal issues; however they had no way of enforcing their decisions

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Weakness of the league

The league did not have an army so it was unable to enforce any of its decisions. None of the countries involved were willing to use their armies for the league
The USA was a big trading partner with many of the countries so when trading sanctions were imposed they weren’t as effective.
Many of the countries cared about the own interests instead of the league so the league looked weak and foolish

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Manchurian Crisis

Causes·The wall street crash had a major impact of Japans trade and economy, so japan had to look for other was to expand·Japan said the Chinese attacked there railway in Manchuria and used this a reason to invade·Manchuria had natural resources and raw materials, something japan lacked as there only resource was silk.The invasion was successful and Manchuria and was renamed Manchukuo
Events·China was in civil war and couldn’t defend itself. So it appealed to the League of Nations.·The league took a long time to act and sent Lord Lytton on a seven month journey by boat to file a report on what was happening·The league said Japan had acted improperly and condemned its actions and told Japan to leave china, instead Japan left the league and went on to invade more Chinese landOutcome·Showed Britain and France weren’t willing to support the leagueShowed the league failed to prevent aggression which encouraged Mussolini and Hitler

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Abyssinian Crisis

Causes-In 1935 Italian troops invaded the African country of Abyssinia-Mussolini wanted to increase Italian territories in Africa-Abyssinia was one of the few African countries not in European control
-Revenge for the defeat in the Battle of Adowa, in 1896Events
-The Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie appealed to the league of nations, the league condemned Italy and put in place sanctions but Italy still traded with the USA
-Britain and France didn’t want to drive Mussolini closer to Hitler, so they didn’t close the suez canal
-They made a secret plan to give Mussolini most of Abyssinia, called the Hoare-Laval pact, but this was leaked to the public and cancelledOutcome
-Show that the members of the league were not willing to use force to stop aggression
-The secret deal of the Hoare-Laval pact undermined the league